Mr. Speaker, the answer is as follows:
a) Contracts for CAPI: There were no contracts awarded to the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute, CAPI, by the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food or any other federal department in 2004 and 2005. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, AAFC, funded CAPI activities with grants and contributions through the Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri Food, ACAAF, and Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development, CARD, programs.
b) Terms of the grants and contributions to CAPI: In April 2004, to facilitate the establishment of the institute, the department provided a $2 million grant from the CARD program for setup and operating costs.
In January 2005, CAPI applied for and received a $676,000 contribution from the ACAAF program to conduct independent research and assessment of the causes of the rapid decline in farm income in Canada and to present the findings at a national forum to a broad range of industry stakeholders and policy researchers.
CAPI received an ACAAF grant of $400,000 to host a national conference entitled “Working Towards a New Direction for the Agri-Food Sector” in an effort to identify strategic future directions for the sector. The forum was held February 13-14, 2006
c) Papers, presentations and submissions: CAPI did not receive any other funding from other federal departments. As per the terms and conditions of the contribution agreement, the institute was not required to deliver or seek approval for the publication of the reports from AAFC or any other government department and these reports are publicly available on their own website: www.capi-icpa.ca.
Recipients of ACAAF funding are obliged to use funds as per their funding agreement. CAPI fulfilled its objectives through the following activities:
Under the project funded in January 2005, entitled “Understanding Factors Affecting Current and Future Farm Income Prospects”, CAPI produced a series of independent commissioned research papers that sought to develop a “fuller understanding of the factors affecting the competitiveness of Canada’s agriculture and agri-food supply chain”. In addition, a farm income forum was held in June 2005 to share the findings of these papers with a broad group of stakeholders with a view to start discussions on longer term approaches to farm income problems.
The conference on “New Directions” was held in February 2006 and the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food participated as a speaker. CAPI has made the papers and presentations of this conference available on their website.